The heART of Sustainability: AIS concludes month-long celebration of National Arts Month

With the desire to make sustainability more accessible and promote its interdisciplinarity, the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability (AIS) hosted a month-long National Arts Month celebration. Entitled, “Navigating Fear and Flourish in Uncertain Times: Sustainability, Creative Expression, and Connections”, the main activities included a call for art submissions from the members of the Ateneo community, a digital exhibit of submitted works on the AIS social media platforms, and an onsite culminating activity that featured an arts exhibit, an interactive community painting, an eco-art workshop, and an open mic event.

Creative Expression for Sustainability

As the sustainability hub on campus, AIS recognizes the critical, bifocal role of the arts in addressing ecological issues. While conversations surrounding sustainability are often restricted to environmental management or economic development, AIS believes in the interdisciplinarity of mainstreaming sustainability. On the one hand, the arts allow people to channel, process, and express a wide range of emotions, such as worry, grief, helplessness, and even hope, towards the urgent environmental issues society faces today. On the other hand, the arts also offer a space for people to reflect and celebrate the beauty and wonder of nature, inspiring action and ecological conversion.

The call for art submissions in January encouraged the members of the community to channel their emotions and harness their creativity into producing works of art. In the end, AIS received a total of 12 art submissions, including paintings, digital art, songs, photographs, and poems. 

Among these were a painting entitled “Oh Deer” by undergraduate student Lucia Montinola, whose art captured the fear felt among all creation from the irreversible impacts of environmental degradation. Meanwhile, JL Algo, an Ateneo alumnus, submitted his poem entitled “Endangered Species”, which reflected deeply on the threats faced by environmental defenders amidst their important work.

Despite the fears and uncertainties, there were artworks, such as undergraduate student Alexander Nathaneal Navarro’s song, “Earth”, that capture an individual’s vow to care for the Earth. And while each artwork embodied a variety of responses, there was a lot of hope. This was particularly evident in the works of Adineco Suriaga, a graduate student. His photograph entitled, “These Hands that Hold the Rain” desired to capture not only hope, but resilience against suffering as well – he writes, “the earth does not abandon those who tend to protect it, and for that reason even in our most vulnerable time we are relying to the important of water to our lives”.

View more works of art in the digital exhibit on the AIS Website

Reflection and Connections Toward Sustainability

The Arts Month celebration culminated in an on-site arts exhibit at the Colayco Pavilion on 02-03 March 2026. The exhibit featured the art submissions by members of the community, and it also showcased some past projects and works by AIS.

A crowd favorite was the interactive community artwork: a paint-by-numbers-esque activity that invited passers by to contribute to the art by filling in the blank spaces with color through the provided oil pastels. Throughout the exhibit days, several members of the community stopped to color in the artwork, very much inspired at the “blast from the past” feel of coloring using pastels again. 

Along with the exhibit, AIS offered two special activities in Colayco Pavillion. The first was an art and creative writing workshop by Project Kalikhasaan. The two-hour workshop allowed participants to get a taste of nature journaling, as they reflected on the tensions between their urban realities and the presence of nature.

The second special activity allowed the celebrations to end on a musical note, as various Atenean groups and individuals performed songs dedicated to the people and the planet. Alternative rock OPM songs, such as Huwag na Huwag Mong Sasabihin, took on a different meaning as performers from VoiceBOx, the musical arm of the Ateneo Biological Organization, turned the classic breakup song into a call for greater ecological consciousness and concern. Likewise, Aura Payawan, a Social Media Campaigns Intern from AIS, dedicated the classic OPM song, Bulong!!! to humanity, encouraging urgent action to address sustainability issues. 

Meanwhile, spirituality and sustainability meet through the performance of the Ateneo College Ministry Group (ACMG). They sang of God’s wonderful creation with Kahanga-Hanga, and reminded the audience of God’s divine guidance with their rendition of Huwag Kang Mangamba. 

To close the special activity, Mx Red Gloria, Communications Officer of AIS, led the unveiling of the completed community interactive painting, with a moving speech that stressed the integral role of the arts and artists alike in responding to the cries of the earth and its people, especially amidst the rise of generative AI. “In a world overprocessed with generative AI, our artists are our beacon in the darkness. AI could never hope to dream of the love, hope, and even the fear we hold for our planet. In these uncertain times, art is our catalyst. Sustainability is interdisciplinary, where not only scientists but artists, illustrators, poets, and musicians can find their through-way,” Mx Gloria affirms before going into their own musical performance on the piano.

“Navigating Fear and Flourish in Uncertain Times: Sustainability, Creative Expression, and Connections,” AIS National Arts Month Celebration, is organized by the Sustainable Development Goals Program of the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability, in partnership with the Office of Student Activities, Department of Fine Arts Council of Organizations of Ateneo - Manila, Mokoa Animation, and Project Kalikhasaan.